July 1, 2011

Veteran character actress Claudia Bryar died on June 16 at the age of 93. Her death was reported, under her real name of Hortense Barrere, last week in a Los Angeles Timesnotice.

Bryar appeared in small parts in hundreds of television episodes, from Father Knows Best to Hill Street Blues.

Her usual specialty was the nosy neighbor, the spinster, or the severe professional woman. The image above comes from “The Cure,” a 1960 Wanted: Dead or Alive episode in which Bryar had a larger-than-usual role, a romantic lead opposite actor Harold J. Stone.

Bryar was an actress I had sought to interview in this space, but by the time I contacted her family last year, her health was too poor to permit it. However, our friend Ralph Senensky has written on his blog about Bryar and her husband, Paul Bryar, both of whom were close friends of his as well as charter members of the Senensky Stock Company. Ralph writes about, and shows clips from, Ms. Bryar’s performances for him on Dr. Kildarehere and in the telefilm The Family Nobody Wantedhere.

September 20, 2010

Okay, let’s make this a regular feature.

Does anybody recognize these two uncredited character actors? The frame grabs are from “Big Jake,” a 1961 episode of The Barbara Stanwyck Show (and an unsold pilot for a semi-comedic cop show starring Andy Devine).